


It's Cold Outside

by Mirror_Face



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Character Study, Post-New Dangan Ronpa V3, Walking, vent - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22899850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirror_Face/pseuds/Mirror_Face
Summary: Shuichi often walks when he goes places, especially in the cold wintertime.The bitter cold makes him feel unmistakably real.
Relationships: Harukawa Maki & Saihara Shuichi & Yumeno Himiko
Kudos: 16





	It's Cold Outside

**Author's Note:**

> Some may notice that this was up before, but I experienced some technical difficulties, so I have to repost this.

Shuichi wasn’t wearing much in the cold weather. Thin gloves, heavy jacket, no hat. He couldn’t help but shiver at the chills crawling up his neck.

He used to have a hat, but it had grown ragged and old, so he had thrown it in the fireplace (it was still sitting there though, since he’d never lit a fire). He’d tried to knit one, but the last time he had tried he’d just sat there, staring. His fingers _not moving_. A problem that Shuichi has been having a lot since the killing game.

It felt weird, not having a hat on his head. The weight of heavy cloth felt real, it was odd not having that. It would always be hard to not be real.

Shuichi kicked powdery snow further up the sidewalk. It turned into a small explosion before laying back down gently. ‘Explosion’ was such an exciting word, something that many people may not use to describe small flurries of snow, but it reminded Shuichi of something from fiction. And that was okay.

His boots (no socks underneath, since he kept losing them behind the bed and he didn’t dare look behind his bed frame) sloshed through the slush. The ice decayed beneath the warmth of his shoe’s bottom. Raising his foot, it left a footprint.

It had been a while since Shuichi had seen any of his friends (only a few out of fourteen). Everyone had dispersed after everything- all confused, they all wanted to be alone. Shuichi had thought that too. That he had wanted to be in isolation. There he didn't have to think, ‘They were a killer’ or ‘they were killed’. But he and his fellow survivors had become lonely. Unlike the others, they had never adapted to the lack of people that the others had been surrounded by.

It wasn’t bright outside. The sun was never out to burn his eyes in the winter. His face would freeze, his fingers would burn, but never his eyes. Perhaps people would describe the weather as gloomy, he just thought it was the world being nice.

Maki had seemed fine being alone, but she still stuck by Shuichi’s (and Himiko’s) side. When he’d asked her why she didn’t just leave them behind, she simply smiled knowingly and said “what else would I have then?” It was the kind of sentence that made Shuichi feel somewhat used. He’d yelled at her that night. Himiko just stood there quietly, waiting for it to all blow over. Maki apologized for her poor wording.

Shuichi stopped and breathed in the winter air. Nice and cool, it burned his lungs. The bitter wind kept him awake and aware. It kept him grounded and real. 

They didn’t live with him though, his fellow survivors. Just around. Sometimes they met at each other’s houses, but at other times they’d eat at the almost always empty cafe. 

He walked a little further, almost at his destination. His fingers were starting to turn numb, limp and laying against his leg’s side.

This time, Himiko said that she’d knit him a new hat (red, she had said- refusing for his clothes to be anymore dark) and Maki said that she would try to bring Kaito along. He’d been too focused on figuring himself out to do anything before, but Kaito had emailed Shuichi a few weeks back asking if he wanted to hang out.

Once Shuichi got to the cafe’s front, he spotted his friends in the isolated cafe. Kaito was talking to Maki, both having a steady, if not cautious conversation. Himiko was fiddling with a red hat.

Shuichi smiled at the sight, unmistakably real.


End file.
